At least 13 people were killed and 15 others injured when a group of gunmen, including two suicide bombers, stormed a coffee shop in a town north of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said.

Iraq’s military needs more intelligence and action from international allies against Islamic State (IS) extremists, the prime minister has said.

A military operation has been launched to drive Islamic State out of the western Anbar province of Iraq, where the extremists captured the provincial capital Ramadi earlier this month.

A series of car bombs today ripped through a crowded marketplace and a Shiite militia’s checkpoint, killing 19 people in separate attacks north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Iraq’s prime minister said his country’s intelligence operation had uncovered a plot for an imminent attack on subway systems in the United States and Paris.

France will join the US-led airstrikes targeting extremists in Iraq as part of an expanding international effort to combat the Islamic State group, Iraq’s new prime minister has said.

The European Union yesterday forged a unified response to the rapid advance of Islamic militants in Iraq and the resulting refugee crisis, allowing direct arms deliveries to Kurdish fighters battling the Sunni insurgents. Several EU nations pledged more humanitarian aid.

British Prime Minister David Cameron cut short his holiday to return to Britain to chair a meeting to discuss the Iraq crisis, but resisted calls to intervene there militarily and ruled out recalling parliament for now.